A trainee hairdresser has won £20,500 compensation after claiming her manager
offered her £10,000 to sleep with him and deliberately dropped his comb to
watch her pick it up.

Maryam Mashayekhi, 34, who is originally from Iran and worked at a Toni and Guy salon, said she suffered months of racial and sexual harassment from her married manager.

Christopher Story, 39, a father-of-two, is said to have made her the "indecent proposal" in his car and joked to clients she had been a “prostitute” before coming to England.

He is said to have also deliberately dropped his comb in the salon to make Mrs Mashayekhi pick it up and asked her explicit questions about sexual relationships in Iran.

Mr Story denied all the allegations but an employment tribunal found that he had engaged in “inappropriate conduct” relating to Mrs Mashayekhi's sex and race leaving her humiliated and her confidence shattered.

The most serious incident involved Mr Story handed her some cash and pushing her head to his groin as they sat in a car outside a client's home.

At an earlier hearing in Sheffield she told the panel he had said to her: "How much money do you want to have sex?

"Are you having sex for £1,000, what about £2,000 or £10,000?"

Iranian-born Mrs Mashayekhi told the hearing: "I said 'no' not even for £20,000. I love my husband. I felt totally humiliated and upset by his questions."

He later pushed her head to his groin in the car as a woman was looking out of her window, it is alleged.

Mrs Mashayekhi claimed: "Mr Story got hold of some money, gave me the money as if he was paying me, got hold of the back of my head and pushed it down towards his groin.

“I was horrified by this and immediately pulled away. He said he was having a joke and giving the lady something to look at. I was livid."

Mrs Mashayekhi claims she was sexually harassed, bullied and humiliated over a six-month period by the franchisee of Toni & Guy hair salon in Sheffield city centre.

The tribunal heard she started work as a salon assistant in May 2010 and was dubbed "slave" by the other staff for working long hours on low pay in a bid to get her qualifications.

She claimed Mr Story called her "stupid" daily and she lost her self-confidence.

On another occasion after telling him she claimed benefits to make ends meet because her wages were so low, Mrs Mashayekhi claimed he replied: "You're just like these Asians that come over here to claim benefits.

“You're a scrounger like the rest of them."

Mrs Mashayekhi was signed off unfit with severe depression in November, 2010 and never went back to work at Toni & Guy.

Mr Story, a married father of two, denied the sex for cash claim and the other allegations.

He told the Sheffield tribunal Mrs Mashayekhi never worked excessive hours and nobody referred to her as a slave.

He said the sex allegation was "wildly inaccurate and extremely offensive".

Mr Story added: "I did not offer to pay her in return for sex nor did I push her head towards my groin."

He insisted he had a good working relationship with the trainee.

The panel found George Plus One Ltd, a franchise of Toni and Guy, constructively and unfairly dismissed Mrs Mashayeki, and an initial £1,057 was awarded for a shortfall in holiday pay and wages.

Mrs Mashayeki said yesterday: "I am very pleased with the result."

A spokesman for Howells Solicitors added: "Mrs Mashayekhi was found to be subjected to behaviour that is wholly unacceptable in any workplace and we are pleased justice has been achieved."